Dalit Seminar

A blogger at Teluga Bloggers writes about an upcoming national seminar in India about Dalits and religion:

Religion is one of the problems for Dalits in India. It is the question of its being implicit and explicit, inclusive and exclusive, an insider and outsider for Dalit life. Dalits have been in dilemma as to which religion they have to follow in the Post- Colonial period. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar has made a statement that he will not die as a Hindu. It had an impact on several Dalit Hindus. Moreover, his conversion to Buddhism has influenced thousands of Dalits to follow. However, there may be a few Dalits who are in Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism, Islam and some others have considered Ambedkarism as one of the religions. The Dalits who are in the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism have constitutional benefits and others who are in Christianity and Islam are denied the same. This could be one of the debates that the seminar is looking forward to address.

Originally linked by Kuffir on Blogbharti.

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“We had Nina.”

Ann blogs about Nina Simone:

There is a quotation attributed to Richard Pryor that states that: “White people had Judy Garland — We had Nina.”  Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, 1933-2003) was a masterful, superb singer-songwriter, pianist, arranger, composer,  goddess, a civil rights activist, “High Priestess of Soul”, and a beautiful woman the likes of which the world will never see again. There are so many of her songs that I love, including, “Four Women” (a song of four different women who epitomize America’s racist, sexist mistreatment of black women), “Mississippi Goddamn” (a scathing indictment of white America’s racist mistreatment of her black citizens), “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, her black ballad which would become Black America’s national anthem,  “Strange Fruit” (her inspiring rendition of the legendary Billie Holliday classic), and my favourite, “My Baby Just Cares For Me”, a song that is an homage to the beauty of black women (ironically the song appeared in a Chanel No. 5 commercial decades ago).

“We had Nina.”

Ann blogs about Nina Simone:

There is a quotation attributed to Richard Pryor that states that: “White people had Judy Garland — We had Nina.”  Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, 1933-2003) was a masterful, superb singer-songwriter, pianist, arranger, composer,  goddess, a civil rights activist, “High Priestess of Soul”, and a beautiful woman the likes of which the world will never see again. There are so many of her songs that I love, including, “Four Women” (a song of four different women who epitomize America’s racist, sexist mistreatment of black women), “Mississippi Goddamn” (a scathing indictment of white America’s racist mistreatment of her black citizens), “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, her black ballad which would become Black America’s national anthem,  “Strange Fruit” (her inspiring rendition of the legendary Billie Holliday classic), and my favourite, “My Baby Just Cares For Me”, a song that is an homage to the beauty of black women (ironically the song appeared in a Chanel No. 5 commercial decades ago).